Economy cannot be inclusive under APEC

APEC 2015 has the theme “Building inclusive economies, Building a better world.” Under APEC, under the world capitalist economy, “inclusive economies” is only an illusion. It is a pipe dream being used by the powers-that-be to make people hope for a better future that will never arrive.

The truth is that the economy under APEC cannot be truly inclusive. Because it perpetuates the economic and geo-political divisions of the world capitalist economy, APEC cannot include all people even in the growth that it brings.

APEC is about preserving a global socio-economic system where there are a handful of capitalists on the one hand and a mass of workers on the other. It is about preserving a global geo-political system where there are a handful of powerful countries on the one hand and many neocolonial countries on the other. In these pairs, the wealth and power of the first stem precisely from their domination over the second.

Worse, APEC is about advancing the interests of the few to the detriment of the many. It is about giving big capitalists in the world greater opportunities for amassing profits. It is about giving powerful countries in the world greater opportunities to defend and expand their hegemony.

What we demand, therefore, is not inclusion into APEC economies or into the world capitalist system. We demand nothing less than a way out of APEC and of the world capitalist system. We desire the eventual abolition of APEC and the world capitalist system.

What we want is for the majority of peoples and countries in the world to take the economic and political power, their destinies, into their hands. What we want is for the interests of the poor peoples and countries to prevail over the interests of a handful of wealthy people and powerful countries.

In the Philippines, the struggle for a better world is the struggle for national freedom and democracy from big foreign capitalists and their wealthy and powerful allies in the government and in the country. It is a struggle for a society where the majority, not the minority, rules. It is only by struggling for socialism can the workers and peoples of the world pave the way for a better world.